Problem with the new Azamara web site finding cabin availability and deck location

[tgg]

23 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

I am not interested in contacting a TA till I see what cabins are available.  I have checked several times for a cruise that is 2 years away and all I can get is the one cabin offered in any of the categories I select.    If I wanted a guarantee cabin I would book in that category and save some money.  I am appalled at Azamara's indifference in making it easy to book one of their cruises.  Do they not understand this will drive people away?

I agree with you that Azamara is making it very difficult to access available cabins. I find it easy to get this information by looking at the websites of a couple of US online travel agencies.  Can you do this from Canada? Someone mentioned that they use a VPN to do this. ( This is beyond me technically,) 

 

If you post the sail date and category, I'd be happy to check for you. (We've had  rain, rain, rain so I have lots of free time.)

[ECCruise]

29 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

I am not interested in contacting a TA till I see what cabins are available.  I have checked several times for a cruise that is 2 years away and all I can get is the one cabin offered in any of the categories I select.    If I wanted a guarantee cabin I would book in that category and save some money.  I am appalled at Azamara's indifference in making it easy to book one of their cruises.  Do they not understand this will drive people away?

Hi there....

Do what I do.  Check one of the online TAs that show cabin availability (there are dozens that do so).  Find the availability of cabins.  Pick the one that is available that works for you.  Phone your TA.  Book.

Did this 3 times last week with 2025 sailings.  As @Host Jazzbeau said, we had confirmations, invoices and OBC amounts in 20 minutes.

A snap.

[Host Jazzbeau]

reminder:  you can't hint at Travel Agencies by describing the building, or any other way.  You can say "brick and mortar" or "online" and that's about it.

[Cruise Junky]

2 hours ago, tgg said:

I agree with you that Azamara is making it very difficult to access available cabins. I find it easy to get this information by looking at the websites of a couple of US online travel agencies.  Can you do this from Canada? Someone mentioned that they use a VPN to do this. ( This is beyond me technically,) 

 

If you post the sail date and category, I'd be happy to check for you. (We've had  rain, rain, rain so I have lots of free time.)

I’m Canadian and booked today through a US based online agency. Shouldn’t need a VPN.  I could see all cabins on their site.  

[Grandma Cruising]

10 hours ago, TeaBag said:

I am not interested in contacting a TA till I see what cabins are available.  I have checked several times for a cruise that is 2 years away and all I can get is the one cabin offered in any of the categories I select.    If I wanted a guarantee cabin I would book in that category and save some money.  I am appalled at Azamara's indifference in making it easy to book one of their cruises.  Do they not understand this will drive people away?

Have you tried clicking on the pencil & paper icon above the cabin choice once you have input your information, then click on choose cabin?

[uktog]

2 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Have you tried clicking on the pencil & paper icon above the cabin choice once you have input your information, then click on choose cabin?

Doesn’t work for us. It’s too difficult planning a cruise or contacting them these days. A month ago I visited my agent we called we waited and waited. The call was answered the girl said she couldn’t deal with it I (not my agent had to email in). I did no reply I did again other than the canned reply telling me to call (which we did in the first instance) nothing. 
I don’t now care what it’s like onboard I can’t even sort out getting there !

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, uktog said:

Doesn’t work for us. It’s too difficult planning a cruise or contacting them these days. A month ago I visited my agent we called we waited and waited. The call was answered the girl said she couldn’t deal with it I (not my agent had to email in). I did no reply I did again other than the canned reply telling me to call (which we did in the first instance) nothing. 
I don’t now care what it’s like onboard I can’t even sort out getting there !

Our TA got through very quickly, checked cabins and booked us with no difficulty.

[tgg]

I asked my wonderful TA to straighten out a pricing problem with Azamara. It got done, and she got a written confirmation. She sent me this email at 12:20pm:

 

"OMG I am still on hold with Azamara, been on hold with them since 10:00 am this morning trying to fix pricing."

[Whitby100]

I do recommend using one of the US cruise websites to find available cabins.  Even my TA who is a major player in the Canadian travel market could not see all the available cabins when I booked my 2025 cruise.  I told her which cabin I wanted based on availability showing on US site.  It did not appear in her AZ portal, but, on my insistence, when she called AZ it was available and booked it.

[2ndsailing]

20 minutes ago, Whitby100 said:

I do recommend using one of the US cruise websites to find available cabins.  Even my TA who is a major player in the Canadian travel market could not see all the available cabins when I booked my 2025 cruise.  I told her which cabin I wanted based on availability showing on US site.  It did not appear in her AZ portal, but, on my insistence, when she called AZ it was available and booked it.

Thank you for this.  I'll have a look.

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by 2ndsailing

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Our TA got through very quickly, checked cabins and booked us with no difficulty.

I appreciate you can ask your TA - I believe you’ve posted before it’s your daughter - anytime and she will do it for you, like Tgg my agent has other challenges to work around and even when the agent does get through the response is get the client to email in. 
Bottom line is the new way of working doesn’t work for many. 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

I appreciate you can ask your TA - I believe you’ve posted before it’s your daughter - anytime and she will do it for you, like Tgg my agent has other challenges to work around and even when the agent does get through the response is get the client to email in. 
Bottom line is the new way of working doesn’t work for many. 

My TA is indeed my daughter, but she treats me the same as any of her clients (she has a lot of ‘business’ clients too who make very large booking -both on numbers &value).

On this occasion I asked her to get price for one of 4 specific OV cabins I wanted and for the cost for other OV cabins in particular areas. She rang once & got through immediately, then came back to me on the phone with prices with Azamara on hold. None of the 4 specific cabins I wanted was available so I chose an alternative on the understanding (suggested by Azamara) that she go back to them in a few days to see if things had changed. She did & one of the cabins I really wanted had become available & she was able to get the booking changed. Again 1 phone call.

 

I guess it depends what sort of TA you have. My daughter isn’t based in a shop, she works from home so all her client-faced work is by telephone or email.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Grandma Cruising

[john1970]

I use a travel agent and am very happy with them. However, you shouldn't have to use one or find other websites to book a cruise with Azamara. It seems bizarre that they are driving business away to other booking channels. The website had better functionality before the update. It just doesn't make sense to me.

[TeaBag]

Thank you everyone for your help.  I think the problem is solved in that the cruise is no longer showing on Azamara's web site.  Maybe it's already sold out? Or maybe the IT dept is screwing up again.  I do look at a US site that I used to book with and yesterday when I looked they were no longer showing all available cabins either.  There was a European site that I used countless times as it was great for showing available cabins but they are no longer doing it either.  Is this some new thing?  I will try again and see what they show.

[JaneStarr]

50 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Thank you everyone for your help.  I think the problem is solved in that the cruise is no longer showing on Azamara's web site.  Maybe it's already sold out? Or maybe the IT dept is screwing up again.  I do look at a US site that I used to book with and yesterday when I looked they were no longer showing all available cabins either.  There was a European site that I used countless times as it was great for showing available cabins but they are no longer doing it either.  Is this some new thing?  I will try again and see what they show.

My guess is that it’s way more likely to be an Azamara/IT error than to be sold out 2 years ahead.

[Mackdogmolly]

7 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Our TA got through very quickly, checked cabins and booked us with no difficulty.

A couple of months ago, it was a nightmare for my TA, but he seems to have made my recent booking with no problems. I just told him the category and position on the deck I was looking for and he came up with a quote and a cabin I was happy with.

[uktog]

4 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

My TA is indeed my daughter…….

I guess it depends what sort of TA you have. My daughter isn’t based in a shop, she works from home so all her client-faced work is by telephone or email.

My preference is to work face to face with one of the largest agencies who put a lot of business Azamaras way. That does I accept mean my contact has multiple demands on her time. But it’s too difficult for her in the new set up.  I’ve experienced it first hand sitting beside her listening to the call after over an hour of waiting, I was really taken aback at how the call was handled aka telling me not the agent to email them - still unanswered by the way. 
Azamara need a website that reduces not increases the volume of calls in to them and they need call handlers empowered to handle issues as they arise. They used to have that. That’s all I’m asking for. 

[TeaBag]

18 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Have you tried clicking on the pencil & paper icon above the cabin choice once you have input your information, then click on choose cabin?

Thank you for this tip Grandma Cruising.  it does, indeed, work as I got 5 more choices.  Still not enough but better than one!

What is the reason for keeping the available cabins hidden?

[holidaysaregood]

We have both booked a cruise and also sorted out a FCC on two separate occasions with our UK travel agent, (one of the large high street agents)  both times we have had a satisfactory conclusion within an hour.  I also called direct and was answered within 5 minutes, things are certainly improving.